Waukee Winter Guard’s Success in IIMA Marion

Last weekend on February 16, Waukee Combined Winter Guard (WCWG) performed at IIMA Marion, their first competition of the season. With a spectacular performance, their show “Disco Dreaming” ended up ranking first out of the five schools in their division. 

The show, contrary to the one from last season, features upbeat music from the film “Mamma Mia”. With glittery and sparkly costumes and flags, the show gives a very disco-y vibe. Although the number of members is a bit less compared to last year, the energy has not changed at all, and performances are able to captivate many of the audience.

For Junior Ariel Martol, this is her second season in Winter Guard. “I feel great about our win, I was also very proud of our performance and had confidence that we would place well.” She then stated how she is “looking forward to further polishing and perfecting our show, and maybe adding more work to make it cooler.”

Another junior, Molly Belay, also expressed satisfaction with this win. “I’m super proud of our newcomers for always looking to improve and try. I think that was a core reason for our success and a major component to our future success.”

Finally, sophomore Karissa Benson shares similar sentiments. This season marks her first experience with Winter Guard. “When our school was announced as first place, I was overwhelmed with excitement and pride! Despite the limited practice time we had compared to the fall season, we still gave it our all competition day!” When questioned about the remainder of the season, she stated, “I can only hope this victory is the first of many more for the guard as the season continues.”

Starting off on a good note, high expectations can be seen for WCWG this season. Their next competition, IIMA Roosevelt, will take place in three weeks, on March 9. 

Graphic by Miku Mizushima using Canva